Sarah

Genesis, chapter 17

1: When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 

2: And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." 

3: Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 

4: "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 

5: No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 

6: I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. 

7: And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 

8: And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." 

9: And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 

10: This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 

11: You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 

12: He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised; every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house, or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 

13: both he that is born in your house and he that is bought with your money, shall be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 

14: Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." 

15: And God said to Abraham, "As for Sar'ai your wife, you shall not call her name Sar'ai, but Sarah shall be her name. 

16: I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." 

17: Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 

18: And Abraham said to God, "O that Ish'mael might live in thy sight!" 

19: God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 

20: As for Ish'mael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 

21: But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year." 

22: When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 

23: Then Abraham took Ish'mael his son and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 

24: Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 

25: And Ish'mael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 

26: That very day Abraham and his son Ish'mael were circumcised; 

27: and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him. 

Genesis, chapter 18


1: And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 

2: He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, 

3: and said, "My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 

4: Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 

5: while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on -- since you have come to your servant." So they said, "Do as you have said." 

6: And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes." 

7: And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 

8: Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. 

9: They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "She is in the tent." 

10: The LORD said, "I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 

11: Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 

12: So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?" 

13: The LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, and say, `Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' 

14: Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son." 

15: But Sarah denied, saying, "I did not laugh"; for she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh." 

16: Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 

17: The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 

18: seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? 

19: No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him." 

20: Then the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomor'rah is great and their sin is very grave, 

21: I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know." 

22: So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the LORD. 

23: Then Abraham drew near, and said, "Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? 

24: Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 

25: Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" 

26: And the LORD said, "If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake." 

27: Abraham answered, "Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 

28: Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for lack of five?" And he said, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there." 

29: Again he spoke to him, and said, "Suppose forty are found there." He answered, "For the sake of forty I will not do it." 

30: Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there." He answered, "I will not do it, if I find thirty there." 

31: He said, "Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there." He answered, "For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it." 

32: Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there." He answered, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." 

33: And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place. 

Genesis, chapter 20


1: From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 

2: And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." And Abim'elech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 

3: But God came to Abim'elech in a dream by night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man's wife." 

4: Now Abim'elech had not approached her; so he said, "Lord, wilt thou slay an innocent people? 

5: Did he not himself say to me, `She is my sister'? And she herself said, `He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this." 

6: Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 

7: Now then restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you, and all that are yours." 

8: So Abim'elech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told them all these things; and the men were very much afraid. 

9: Then Abim'elech called Abraham, and said to him, "What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done." 

10: And Abim'elech said to Abraham, "What were you thinking of, that you did this thing?" 

11: Abraham said, "I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. 

12: Besides she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 

13: And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, `This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.'" 

14: Then Abim'elech took sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah his wife to him. 

15: And Abim'elech said, "Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you." 

16: To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; it is your vindication in the eyes of all who are with you; and before every one you are righted." 

17: Then Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abim'elech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 

18: For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abim'elech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. 

Genesis, chapter 21


1: The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. 

2: And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 

3: Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 

4: And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 

5: Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 

6: And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; every one who hears will laugh over me." 

7: And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." 

8: And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 

9: But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. 

10: So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." 

11: And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 

12: But God said to Abraham, "Be not displeased because of the lad and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named. 

13: And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring." 

14: So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 

15: When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 

16: Then she went, and sat down over against him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Let me not look upon the death of the child." And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and wept. 

17: And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 

18: Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation." 

19: Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. 

20: And God was with the lad, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. 

21: He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 

22: At that time Abim'elech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do; 

23: now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned." 

24: And Abraham said, "I will swear." 

25: When Abraham complained to Abim'elech about a well of water which Abim'elech's servants had seized, 

26: Abim'elech said, "I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today." 

27: So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abim'elech, and the two men made a covenant. 

28: Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 

29: And Abim'elech said to Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart?" 

30: He said, "These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well." 

31: Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there both of them swore an oath. 

32: So they made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Then Abim'elech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 

33: Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. 

34: And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. 

Genesis, chapter 23


1: Sarah lived a hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 

2: And Sarah died at Kir'iath-ar'ba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 

3: And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and said to the Hittites, 

4: "I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." 

5: The Hittites answered Abraham, 

6: "Hear us, my lord; you are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our sepulchres; none of us will withhold from you his sepulchre, or hinder you from burying your dead." 

7: Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 

8: And he said to them, "If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, 

9: that he may give me the cave of Mach-pe'lah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burying place." 

10: Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 

11: "No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it; in the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead." 

12: Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 

13: And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, "But if you will, hear me; I will give the price of the field; accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there." 

14: Ephron answered Abraham, 

15: "My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead." 

16: Abraham agreed with Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. 

17: So the field of Ephron in Mach-pe'lah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave which was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 

18: to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 

19: After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Mach-pe'lah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 

20: The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a burying place by the Hittites. 

Genesis, chapter 24


36: And Sarah my master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he has. 

Genesis, chapter 25


1: Abraham took another wife, whose name was Ketu'rah. 

2: She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Mid'ian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 

3: Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshu'rim, Letu'shim, and Le-um'mim. 

4: The sons of Mid'ian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abi'da, and Elda'ah. All these were the children of Ketu'rah. 

5: Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 

6: But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country. 

7: These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, a hundred and seventy-five years. 

8: Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 

9: Isaac and Ish'mael his sons buried him in the cave of Mach-pe'lah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 

10: the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife. 

11: After the death of Abraham God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac dwelt at Beer-la'hai-roi. 

12: These are the descendants of Ish'mael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham. 

13: These are the names of the sons of Ish'mael, named in the order of their birth: Neba'ioth, the first-born of Ish'mael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 

14: Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 

15: Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Ked'emah. 

16: These are the sons of Ish'mael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. 

17: (These are the years of the life of Ish'mael, a hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kindred.) 

18: They dwelt from Hav'ilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled over against all his people. 

19: These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 

20: and Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethu'el the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. 

21: And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 

22: The children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is thus, why do I live?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. 

23: And the LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger." 

24: When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 

25: The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they called his name Esau. 

26: Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. 

27: When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 

28: Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob. 

29: Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 

30: And Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red pottage, for I am famished!" (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 

31: Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright." 

32: Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" 

33: Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 

34: Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.